Wikinews… citizen journalism gone too far?
Wikinews is exactly what you would expect when you think of wikipedia and news. The layout of the news is the exact same as wikipedia and is potentially very boring for the reader. Just like Wikipedia, the site is awash with links to more information. Even the tagline “The free news source you can write!” contains a link to Wikipedia explaining the word “free”.
It appears that this news site is just another branch of Wiki and is used to promote the other Wiki sites. This is clear from the following which is found at the bottom of the homepage
| Wikinews is run by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, which operates several other multilingual and free-content projects. | ||
 Meta-Wiki – Coordination |
 Wikipedia – Encyclopedia |
 Wiktionary – Dictionary |
 Wikibooks – Textbooks |
 Wikisource – Sources |
 Wikiquote – Quotations |
 Wikispecies – Species |
 Commons – Media repository |
 Wikiversity – Learning tools |
The most irritating feature of this news site is the high level of repetition. The headline of the main story, “Congressional computers continue to be used to vandalise Wikipedia”, is repeated five times on the homepage. This is pointless and can be very frustrating for the reader.
Although this site promotes citizen journalism, its layout and content certainly does not evoke a desire to use it as a source of news.
